CO₂ Capture using functionalized metal organic frameworks: A review

Excessive carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions to the atmosphere has contributed to global warming and climate change, requiring the development of effective carbon capture technologies. Among the available technologies, adsorption is very attractive approach for CO₂ capture due to its simplicity, affordability, and good performance. CO₂ adsorption performance is governed by specific surface area, pore architecture, surface functionalization, and cyclic stability. A larger surface area increases the availability of adsorption sites, while pore size distribution and overall pore volume facilitate the diffusion of CO₂ molecules into and out of the material. Surface functional groups, such as amines or hydroxyls, determine binding strength and selectivity through specific host and guest interactions. Moreover, the framework ability to retain its structural integrity under repeated adsorption/desorption cycles ensures sustained performance over time. Consequently, comprehensive characterization of surface area, pore structure, functionalization, and cyclic resilience is essential for the design and optimization of high-performance CO₂ adsorbents. Recently, metal organic frameworks (MOFs) have emerged as promising nanomaterials for effective CO₂ capture as a result of their high surface area, highly porous and diverse structures, tuneability, and ease of modification/functionalization, enabling the incorporation of different functionalities to the MOFs frameworks. The progress in the development of MOFs-based materials for CO₂ capture is rapid, requiring frequent and up-to-date review articles that analyze, summarize, and track the advancement in this dynamic research field. Accordingly, this review offers a comprehensive overview of recent advancements in MOFs-based CO₂ capture, with more focus on how various synthesis and functionalization techniques influence CO₂ adsorption. Particularly, the effect of MOFs functionalization with different functional materials such as amines, polymers and graphene oxide on CO₂ capture has been thoroughly explored. Furthermore, the effects of process parameters on the efficacy of functionalized MOFs-based materials in capturing CO₂ have been reviewed, providing a useful understanding and room for optimizing their performance. The role of computational studies in advancing CO₂ capture using MOFs-based materials has been also discussed in this article. Moreover, challenges and obstacles facing the practical deployment of this technology have been highlighted, and future research works to tackle them have been proposed.